Technical Field
The invention relates to a vending machine for keeping products such as a canned beverage in a heated (hot) or cooled (cold) state and selling the product, in which a refrigeration cycle is constituted by an internal heat exchanger provided inside of a vending machine main body formed as a heat-insulated housing, a condenser (external heat exchanger) provided outside of the vending machine main body, and a compressor.
Related Art
For example, a soft drink vending machine for selling products such as a canned beverage and a beverage in a PET bottle saves the products in a product accommodation chamber of a vending machine main body formed as a heat-insulated housing in such a state that the products are classified into cold and hot states, and the soft drink vending machine displays multiple product samples in a right/left direction in a display chamber of an outer door, and is configured to sell a product selected on the basis of an operation of a product selection button provided in association with the product sample. This kind of vending machine will be explained with reference to FIG. 7.
As shown in FIG. 7, this vending machine includes a vending machine main body 1, a front surface of which is open, and a single swinging outer door 2 supported in an openable manner with a hinge by one of the side walls at the front surface of the vending machine main body 1, and the vending machine main body 1 is formed as a heat-insulated housing so that a heat-insulated board made of urethane foam is provided along the inside of an external box made of steel plate. More specifically, the heat-insulated board is arranged on a top wall, right and left side walls, a back wall, and a bottom wall 1a. The product accommodation chamber enclosed by the heat-insulated board of the vending machine main body 1 is divided into multiple product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5 in the right/left direction by heat-insulated division plates 1b. In this example, each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5 is provided with a meandering product accommodation path which is called serpentine method. At the lower end, a product accommodation rack R having a product discharge apparatus is accommodated and installed in each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5. At the lower portion of the product accommodation rack R, a product discharge chute 6, on which a product cut out by the product discharge apparatus slides or rolls, is provided in a forward-inclined posture. At the lower portion of the product discharge chute 6 and at the lower end of each of the product accommodation chambers, a cooling and heating unit is provided to save the products accommodated in the product accommodation rack R in cold or hot states by cooling or heating each of the product accommodation chambers. An inner door 7 is provided on the front surface of the vending machine main body 1. In this example, the inner door 7 is divided into the upper and lower parts, which include an upper inner door 7a and a lower inner door 7b. The lower inner door 7b is provided with a product discharge port having a discharge door 7b1 at a position opposite to the product discharge chute 6 feeding the product discharged from the product accommodation rack R of each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5. The upper end entrance of the discharge door 7b1 is axially supported, so that the discharge door 7b1 is hung to close the product discharge port by its own weight, thereby preventing the cold air or the warm air from flowing out. The discharge door 7b1 is formed so that the discharge door 7b1 is pushed open by the product discharged via the product discharge chute 6, and the product is fed to a product retrieval port 8 of the outer door 2.
The lower portion of the bottom wall 1a of the vending machine main body 1 is formed as a machine chamber 9. A condensing unit for a refrigerator is provided in this machine chamber 9. The refrigeration cycle is constituted by the condensing unit and the cooling unit of the cooling and heating unit provided in the product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5. A product accommodation chamber having only the cooling unit provided therein is a cold-only chamber, and a product accommodation chamber having both of the cooling and heating units provided therein is a hot/cold switchable chamber. In the example as shown in FIG. 7, the product accommodation chambers 3, 4 are hot/cold switchable chambers, and the product accommodation chamber 5 is a cold-only chamber. An internal heat exchanger and an internal fan functioning as an evaporator for cooling the products are provided as the cooling unit in each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4, 5. The internal heat exchanger is connected to the condensing unit of the refrigerator constituted by a compressor, a condenser (external heat exchanger), an external fan, and the like provided in the machine chamber. In addition to the heat exchanger, a heater for heating the products is provided as a heating unit in the product accommodation chambers 3, 4 which are the hot/cold switchable chambers. Instead of providing the heater, the internal heat exchanger provided in each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4 may also be used as the heating unit. In this case, in addition to the circuit configuration for constituting the refrigeration cycle of the condensing unit of the refrigerator, the internal heat exchanger is provided with a refrigerant switch circuit for allowing the high temperature refrigerant gas from the compressor to flow into the condenser (external heat exchanger) of the condensing unit of the refrigerator via the internal heat exchanger, so that in the hot operation mode, the refrigerant switch circuit is formed to cause the internal heat exchanger of each of the product accommodation chambers 3, 4 to function as the condenser.
In this case, the condensing unit of the refrigerator provided in the machine chamber 9 of the vending machine main body 1 is fixed and attached to an attachment base made of a steel plate provided on the base forming the bottom portion of the machine chamber 9 (for example, Japanese Patent No. 3206681). In this case, a conventional condenser (external heat exchanger) employs a fin-and-tube heat exchanger. This fin-and-tube heat exchanger is constituted by U-bends and straight circular pipes where tubes forming the refrigerant flow path are straight, and the straight circular pipes are arranged in the vertical directions and fixed to the right and left rectangular end plates, and the U-bends are fixed to the right and left end portions of adjacent circular pipes, so that the refrigerant path meandering as a whole is formed. As described above, since the conventional condenser (external heat exchanger) has the right and left end plates, the condenser is installed on the attachment base by using the right and left end plates.